Angel Road, London’s second quietest train station is set to close in May, the Department for Transport has announced. With just over 33,000 passengers in 2017/18, it’s beaten to the bottom spot only by South Greenford station’s 26,500 passengers.

It will be replaced on May 19th 2019, by the new Meridian Water station, which will be 580 metres to the South.

I went to Angel Road station, to see if I could get any decent pictures of the new Meridian Water station.

Note.

How much of the station is tastefully placed under the North Circular Road.

The bridge must have some of the best views of scrapyards in the UK.

The under-construction Meridian Water station can be seen to the South of the station and the bridge.

I wonder how bad the pollution levels are on the platforms.

The stations aren’t far away from each other as this Google Map shows.

Note.

The platforms and buildings of Meridian Water station can be seen under construction to the South of the North Circular Road.

Tesco (and IKEA, who are just South of the map!) won’t be complaining about the location.

Stations don’t often get closed, but I can’t see many complaining about the closure of Angel Road station, which is a genuine dump.

I don’t think Premier Inn will complain either, as how many of their guests have thought they’ve booked in to a hotel with a fast and frequent rail service to London, that turns out to be an occasional service at inconvenient times?

Whilst, I was there taking the pictures, I was talking to a car delivery driver, who had delivered a car nearby and needed to get to Derby. I think he’d waited about an hour, before I sorted him out and he joined me on a train to Totteham Hale for the Victoria Line and St. Pancras. If he’d been thirty minutes later, he’d have waited all day.

Northern Access To Meridian Water Station

I can’t find anything on the Internet, but I suspect the third track currently being laid between Meridian Water and Lea Bridge stations will be Southbound-only for services going to Stratford.

I also think, that it will be connected to the Southbound track of the West Anglia Main Linein the area of Angel Road station.

This Google Map shows the area to the North of Angel Road station.

Pretty! It isn’t!

I believe it would be possible for a track to extend from the platform served by the new third track at Meridian Water station, pass behind the Southbound platform at Angel Road station and then connect to the West Anglia Main Line.

A crossover could also be provided to allow trains to go North from the new third track if required.

Angel Road station is not the easiest to get to, with about two trains per day. This one of the reasons, that STAR is being built to increase the number of trains to Angel Road station to four trains per hour (tph).

This morning, I took the 0:36 from Lea Bridge station, which arrived at Angel Road at 08:48.

After taking a few pictures, I crossed the line on the footbriodge and took the 08:52 South to Tottenham Hale station.

These are the pictures I took.

This Google Map shows the station.

Angel Road is not an attractive station.

The recycling plant to the West of the station doesn’t help.

But it does have plenty of space.

There is space behind Platform 1 to put a bay platform to act as the Northern terminus for the STAR service.

The station could be within walking distance of the Edmonton Premier Inn, the Tesco Superstore and IKEA.

But as the current entrance to the station is on Conduit Lane, you wouldn’t start from there.

The London Borough of Enfield announced in January 2014 that the station being an integral part of the proposed Meridian Water development would be turned into a ‘thriving’ new hub and renamed as Meridian Water. The £3.5 billion project is being supported with funds from the Greater London Authority and Enfield Council, and will create up to 10,000 homes, meaning improvements to the railway station will be carried out to cope with the increase in patronage.

Work will soon start on the first homes in a £3.5billion development after getting the planning green light.

Enfield Council’s planning committee has given permission for the first phase of Meridian Water, agreeing to the construction of 725 homes, as well as retail space, play areas, a community centre and a new train station which will have the facilities to include the planned Crossrail 2.

The decision follows the announcement last month of Barratt and SEGRO as developers for the scheme, which the council hope will provide 10,000 homes and 6,700 jobs in Edmonton.

London certainly needs this development with all its houses and a replacement for Angel Road station and I doubt that few will mourn the passing of the industrial wasteland that the area is now.

With Waltham Forest getting a new Lea Bridge station, Enfield Council are trying hard to get an improved service at Angel Road station, which is going to be rebuilt and renamed Meridian Water. Wikpedia says this about the development.

The London Borough of Enfield announced in January 2014 that the station being an integral part of the proposed Meridian Water development would be turned into a ‘thriving’ new hub and renamed as Meridian Water. The £3.5 million project due to be completed within the next five years is being supported with funds from the Greater London Authority and Enfield Council.

To create the extra capacity needed to run more services along the West Anglia Main Line, Crossrail 2 would require the addition of more tracks along the route from south of Tottenham Hale station to north of Broxbourne station. This would also allow for a further four trains per hour from all stations on the line to Stratford, in addition to Crossrail 2. In addition, the new tracks could also enable an increase in the number of faster longer-distance services between Liverpool Street, Bishop’s Stortford and Cambridge. We are still at a very early stage in the development of our proposals for the new tracks. We will carry out further consultation in the local areas about these proposals as they develop.

This is the first time, I’ve read that services all Lea Valley stations like Brimsdown, Cheshunt and Broxbourne will have a four trains per hour service to Stratford.

At present there are just a few trains per hour from Stratford to Bishops Stortford, but with the opening of the new Lea Bridge station next year, this may be turned into a more frequent service.

There is a lot of circumstantial evidence on the Internet that mainly because of the need for more and faster longer distance services, whether Crossrail 2 is built or not, that the West Anglia Main Line will be given extra tracks from South of Tottenham Hale station to North of Broxbourne station.

If four tracks were provided this would allow the separation of slow and faster services.

But it would not be a trivial project as all the stations from Tottenham Hale to Cheshunt would need to substantially modified, with most given one or more extra platforms.

Although once it was finished, it would have created the tracks andreadied the station sites for the buildimng of the North-Eastern branch of Crossrail 2.

However, it will be on Crossrail 2 and will be one of the main features of the development at Meridian Water, which may give the station a new name.

This Google Map shows the station and the surrounding area as I walked to the Tesco superstore to get a bus to Tottenham Hale.

Angel Road Station

It is not the most beautiful of stations and the walking route is pretty dreadful.

After I arrived, I walked Northwards along the line and then climbed up onto the flyover on a set of rusty steps, before walking alongside the road and under the North Circular Road, taking these pictures as I walked.

Angel Road must surely, be one of the most inaccessible stations for the able-bodied not just in London, but the whole of Europe. No wonder it is the second least-used station in London. I shall have to visit Sudbury and Harrow Road station, which sees fewer passengers. The station is also so lacking in facilities, that there isn’t even a convenient place to drop or pick-up a passenger with a vehicle.

The one good thing about this truly dreadful station is that there is more than adequate space to put the two extra tracks for stopping trains and Crossrail 2 between the current West Anglia Main Line and the busy Meridian Way.

Short term plans for this station include an hourly service pattern. So when there is limited development at the station, which must include decent pedestrian access direct across Meridian Way from IKEA and Tesco with perhaps a footbridge with lifts, the prognosis for passenger numbers at the station can only be upwards.

About This Blog

What this blog will eventually be about I do not know.

But it will be about how I’m coping with the loss of my wife and son to cancer in recent years and how I manage with being a coeliac and recovering from a stroke. It will be about travel, sport, engineering, food, art, computers, large projects and London, that are some of the passions that fill my life.

And hopefully, it will get rid of the lonely times, from which I still suffer.